| Title: |
Measuring Head Start Children's Early Learning Skills Using Teacher Reports during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Research Brief. OPRE Report 2022-13 |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
Harding, Jessica F.; Nguyen, Tutrang; Malone, Lizabeth; Atkins-Burnett, Sally; Tarullo, Louisa; Aikens, Nikki; Administration for Children and Families (DHHS), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE); Mathematica |
| Source: |
Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. 2022. |
| Availability: |
Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. Administration for Children & Families, US Department of Health and Human Services, 330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20201. Web site: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre |
| Peer Reviewed: |
N |
| Page Count: |
18 |
| Publication Date: |
2022 |
| Contract Number: |
HHSP23320095642WC; HHSP23337052T |
| Document Type: |
Reports - Research |
| Education Level: |
Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education |
| Descriptors: |
Federal Programs; Low Income Students; Social Services; Experience; Children; Surveys; Preschool Education; Family (Sociological Unit); Early Intervention; COVID-19; Pandemics; Validity; Reliability; Bias; Literacy; Reading Skills; Scores |
| Laws, Policies and Program Identifiers: |
Head Start |
| Assessment and Survey Identifiers: |
Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey |
| Abstract: |
In spring 2020, in response to the COVID-19 (for coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, many early care and education centers, including Head Start centers, closed their physical buildings and changed their operations to virtual. Because of health and safety restrictions, OPRE was unable to directly assess children's skills in spring 2020 for the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2019). However, teachers did complete reports about individual children in their classrooms, as has been done in prior rounds of FACES. This report explores whether teacher reports of children's approaches to learning and literacy skills offer a reliable, valid, and nonbiased way to measure aspects of children's early learning skills as a proxy for the skills measured in the direct child assessment. Overall, teacher-reported approaches to learning and literacy skills have strong measurement properties among Head Start children. Therefore, these teacher reports could be used as outcome measures in analyses using FACES data when the direct child assessment is not available, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Abstractor: |
ERIC |
| Entry Date: |
2022 |
| Accession Number: |
ED621930 |
| Database: |
ERIC |